Mission, Vision, & Values

Hadar empowers Jews to create and sustain vibrant, practicing, egalitarian communities of Torah, Avodah, and Hesed.

Jews, in communities throughout the United States, Israel, and the world, are living meaningful lives of Torah, Avodah, and Hesed.

Hadar nourishes and is built upon the values of Torah, Avodah, and Hesed.

Passionate Torah study that is rigorous, nuanced and sensitive to the full range of human experiences, combining critical study and intellectual openness with religious hunger and expression.
A community where Torah study is widely practiced and peer-reinforced, that values Torah literacy and fluency, based on the conviction that the Torah is the birthright of all Jews.
A community that is at home in and contributes to the conversation of Torah, which is experienced as a powerful way to address life’s deepest questions.

Jewish practice that is attentive and consistent, including communal prayer that is spiritually and emotionally resonant.
A community that embraces mitzvot with a full heart and through peer-reinforced practice, which engages our deepest ethical and religious instincts.
A commitment to gender equality in practice, leadership and citizenship as the proper application of Torah to contemporary reality, motivated by the importance of encountering each and every human being as the image of God.

Hesed—love manifested as kindness—is an underlying principle of religious life and is rooted in the recognition of humanity’s creation in the image of God.
There can be no service of God without a journey to greater kindness, empathy and sensitivity; when Torah is studied properly—with heart and not just mind, with vulnerability and presence—it ought to lead to a life of hesed.
A community that is characterized and animated by hesed, such that Torah study, practice of mitzvot, and interpersonal interactions are all shaped by this central value.